Life is Cheap

As anyone who has children knows, having kids is expensive, from the cradle to the altar. That's life.


Yesterday, Obama backed off his contraception mandate, at least somewhat. Religious organizations, such as hospitals and colleges, will not be required to provide contraceptive services to employees. Instead, the cost will be passed on to the insurer through a separate arrangement with the patient, though the Administration is not clear just how an insurance company is going to deal with the cost.

According to The Bergen Record (of N.J.), Obama was quoted as saying, "he spoke as a Christian who cherishes religious freedom and as a president unwilling to give up on free contraceptive care." Who is going to bell the president and inform him that he can't have it both ways?

Health insurance costs have risen dramatically precisely because of all the freebies doled out to Obama's premier constituents. Insurers must bear the cost of doctor's office and emergency room visits for every little sniffle and cough that could easily be treated by inexpensive, over-the-counter remedies. Minding sales and clipping coupons, even the poorest families could bear the cost.

Just what this "emergency" in women's reproductive health is hard to define. The Liberals would have the public believe we will be returning to the (pre-birth control pill) era of back alley abortions, rather than the nice, neat prescription option. The lower-level methods of pregnancy prevention are hardly a strain on anyone's budget. There is, of course, the old-fashioned way as well. But no one wants that anymore than they want to return to manual transmissions or roll-down windows on their cars, even though they're cheaper to maintain and repair, and eminently safer.

No, the Liberals want their electric windows and their emergency hammers, too. The Bergen Record is quick to note that the administration was not targeting houes of worship themselves, but the organizations operating under those religions: hospitals, colleges, and so forth.

"Administration officials say providing birth control is going to save money in the long run for insurers, because it's a lot cheaper than the costs of labor and delivery. They also say the government has the power to order insurers to do so under Obama's health care overhaul law.

"That may not sit well with the industry. Insurers point out that unless drug makers stop charging for pills, and doctors decide to prescribe them pro bono, birth control coverage isn't free."

Excuse moi? That's the administration's justification for providing free birth control? Because it's going to save money in terms of labor and delivery costs for insurers (notice how Obama scruples not to make the insurers the heavy here). The only real labor costs are those of paying unionized health care workers. In other words, because it's cheaper to prevent children from being born than it is to deal with them once they've arrived. You can't exactly "return to sender" the government is telling us.

That's what our world has come to. This is progress. Life is cheap, but birth control is cheaper.

Robert Attlee, Deputy Leader of the House of Commons in Great Britain during World War II, said of the Germans at the Supreme War Council in Paris, "The British people now realize the danger with which they are faced, and know that in the event of a German victory, everything they have built up will be destroyed. The Germans kill not only men, but ideas."

The same could be said of Obama and the Progressives. In throwing out the babies with the U.S. Constitution, they kill not only babies, but the idea of individual freedom and responsibility.